Not Broken English, but Nice Anyway...
I don't know why people are claiming that this is Marianne's best album since Broken English. True the title track and "Incarnation of a Flower Child" have the same brilliantly scathing energy of songs from her first masterpiece, but everything else on here seems to be just solid pop tunes from a survivor who is content with her life. Songs like "Marathon Kiss" and "Great Expectations" oddly remind me of her work from the 60s (which, sans Sister Morphine, was pretty mediocre). The songs "File it Under Fun From the Past" and "Electra" are extremely forgettable, though lovely on first listen. "Tower of Song" kind of depressed me for all its happy spirit; it was basically Marianne saying that she settled down and life is wonderful, and god bless her, but it was like saying goodbye to my punk-goddess queen for a more stable woman. "Wilder Shores of Love" has a breathtaking chorus, and "All For Wanting You" is easily the third best song on here after the title track and "Incarnation of a Flower Child". As for "After the Ceasefire", let me just say that Marianne makes a miserable spoken word artist as the story she tells has been much overtold, and after "Tower of Song", she has no right trying to act like the bad ass she used to be.
Diamond in the Rough
Vagabond Ways is one of the best CD's this year. Marianne Faithfull once again bares her soul in a matter-of-fact way that leaves the listener craving for more. Emmylou Harris on Marathon Kiss is a true delight. I listen to this CD over and over, in awe at the lyrics and the exceptional music. Wilder Shores of Love, File it Under Fun from the Past, and Incarceration of a Flower Child are real gems. Tower of Song is a bit pop, but essential. The narrative, After the Ceasefire is the perfect ending to a great CD. You can't help but be drawn in by Marianne's drone.
UG!
Marianne Faithful is famous for some reason, it ain't because of this album.
Amazing How This Woman Can Keep My Attention
The Marianne Faithfull part of my music collection stretches for a long distance. I liked her back when she had the little girl voice doing the folkie and light folk/pop things in the mid-60s. I liked her harrowing version of "Visions of Johannah" recorded at a time when she was completely strung out on junk and virtually homeless. I LOVED her first three albums on Island, when she was more-or-less back in one piece and taking responsibility for her choices of material. And everything since has been quite fascinating, from Hal Wilner's torch explorations to Kurt Weill revivals to the brilliant Angelo Badelamente album. On "Vagabond Ways," it feels as if Marianne has revisited a number of her records in the past twenty years or so. The classic approach of her first three Island albums ("Broken English," "Dangerous Acquaintances," and "A Child's Adventure") is used on the title track, and on "Electra," "Wilder Shores of Love," the Daniel Lanois-arranged "Marathon Kiss" and the utterly perfect interpretation of Leonard Cohen's "Tower of Song." This latter number is such a perfect match of song and singer that I wonder whether she's ever considered doing a full album of Cohen's songs; she could do any of them--even "Don't Go Home with Your Hard-on." On the other hand, tracks like "For Wanting You," "Great Expectations" and "After the Ceasefire" remind of "A Secret Life." The only criticism is that Marianne can veer dangerously close to self-parody, such as on the title track. I can live with a bit of Marianne Faithfull's self-parody.All in all, a great album
WOW
Now I must admit I have been a fan of Marianne Faithfull for as long and I can recall, however thie record is the best I have sence broken...
What she recalls in her life and mins is amazing. With her leric and song she creates a place and a time for us all to fall into.
Vagabond ways is a track to rember, the emotion that she give us to hear is so real and so now that twenty years from now people will hear it and say I was at that place and i felt that emotion. That is the gift the she has that anyone that is lucky enough to hear her work should rejoice in.
What she has to say is far beyond just her. Sh lets us into her past and we can all find momnets that connect with ours. I am happy to be a part of her world for jusat that moment.
I am egerly waiting for the next moment that she lets us be a pat of.
"Oh, doctor please. I drink and I take drugs. I love sex and I move around a lot." These are the opening words of this album, and as the summation of a gloriously misspent youth, they're kind of hard to beat, cementing Marianne Faithfull's claim to the title of Greatest Living Englishwoman. Her first album since 20th Century Blues offers up a diverse collection of material. An old Roger Waters composition, "Incarceration of a Flower Child," opens with a musical phrase he would revisit, 15 years later, in "Your Possible Pasts" (from the Final Cut album). Faithfull interprets it as a simple lament to lost innocence, the days of "good dope and cheap wine"--though its chorus rather deliberately punctures the dream ("It's gonna get old in the 1970s"). And with its mocking air of self-pity, its ruined grandeur, Leonard Cohen's "Tower of Song" might have been written with her in mind. But it's that title track and "Electra," two ruthless slices of self-examination ("You'd think she owns the streets of Dublin"), which truly compel attention. Singular, magnificent. --Andrew McGuire
